Last week was an adventure in editing for me. All my experience with video editing was with Apple’s Final Cut Pro X. As part of a project for #loweclass we learned how to work with Adobe Premiere Pro. There are plenty of differences between these two programs. Knowing this and identifying these differences was key for me to get started.
One of the first key points for me was adjusting to where the editing takes place. In Final Cut most of my work is done on the timeline but in Premiere the timeline just features most of the work already completed. The trim and blade functions of Final Cut were my best friends. After just one day of working with Premiere I realized that would not be the case after transitioning. Using the in and out shortcuts in the source window is the most efficient way to cut up pieces of video. At this point it is still hard to say which one I prefer but it took me months to get comfortable with Final Cut. That work certainly helped me learn Premiere quicker than the average bear. It is possible that Premiere is easier to learn – I will never truly know. The biggest plus for me with Premiere was the customization of the interface. Final Cut has a rigid preset workspace that is great to work with but hard to change. Premiere is incredible in terms of versatility. The placement and size of the windows and toolbars allowed me to set up my workspace exactly how I want it. It also allowed me to change the workspace as I go, which was truly wonderful. Premiere also seemed to be smoother and less gimmicky than Final Cut. That may be an issue with my laptop rather than the software though. Either way I can certainly see why someone would want to use Premiere rather than Final Cut. I will continue to work with both until one truly steals my heart. The only other detail is that Avid Media Composer will soon be a part of my life as well. My video editing work will be spread over three high quality platforms that all have their selling points. Who will win out? Check back another time for the answer.
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In nearly four complete semesters at Marquette University my professors have lined up countless guest speakers. Most are interesting and several have career relevant advice. Only a few have combined both. Monday afternoon #loweclass was graced with the presence of four established journalists who could speak directly to our goals.
Professor Herbert Lowe recruited Justin George, Liz Navratil, Miranda Spivack and Dave Umhoefer to share with our class. All four explained a bit about their history as journalists, what they are up to now and told us about some plans they have going forward. Justin George works for The Baltimore Sun as a crime reporter. A story he worked on led to an opportunity to work on a podcast hosted and produced by Sarah Koenig who worked as a producer for This American Life. The podcast, Serial, debuted in October of 2014 and quickly became the most popular podcast on iTunes. Serial went viral and it got people talking, so much so that its reddit subpage has 44,317 people subscribed to discussion about the podcast. George hopes to use his experience working on the podcast to move his career forward. He thinks that he can use a podcasts as a part of his next project – one you may hear plenty about in the near future. Liz Navratil is also a crime reporter. She does her work for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Navratil broke a massive story that cost a mayor and a chief of police their jobs. To break such a massive story within four years of graduating college would be miraculous. Her insight was appreciated and her story was gripping. Miranda Spivack spent many years working as a reporter and editor for The Washington Post but now she does freelance writing focusing on legal issues and transparency in government. She spoke about how difficult it can be for journalists and citizens alike to obtain information from the government that should be accessible. Spivack had plenty to say about ideas she has in terms of exploring this issue. Dave Umhoefer has made a career out of covering one of the most interesting men in politics, Scott Walker. Umhoefer wrote a curious piece about Walker’s time as a Marquette student and the mystery that surrounds it for politifact.com that caught my attention. Umhoefer interested me because he is covering a public figure experiencing an unprecedented rise to fame. If you have any questions about Walker, “govwatcher” is your man. I can only hope I get the chance to meet more guest speakers of this quality in my time at Marquette. Until then all one can do is soak up the knowledge that has already been shared. Late Night Marquette hosted an open mic for peace event last Thursday night. A video package of the evening’s events will be coming soon. My partner in crime for coverage of this occasion was Jahi Brown.
The event opened with several musicians performing with their voices and guitars. The atmosphere was somber and welcoming. One particular performance captured the audience’s attention during the first portion of the show – a student courageously took on Elton John’s legendary song Rocket Man. A brief intermission took place and the group of 25 students gathered together had a chance to mingle. The second half of the show saw a few more musical performances, one by Marquette’s only all female a cappella group The Meladies. The night changed dramatically after The Meladies performance when five spoken word performers took over the mic. One of the speakers performed an original piece titled Love as an Introvert that had the crowd laughing and thinking at the same time. Two race related performances in particular evoked reactions from the audience. A young lady read an original poem using a letter to her future daughter as the mode of storytelling. A young man performed rap lyrics he had written. Both of these performances were greeted with standing ovations and provoked plenty of thought. Jahi and I will create two video packages for this event. One will be general coverage of the event itself and the other will be about one of the performers, Miguel Sanchez. He spoke candidly about his experiences in the Milwaukee area as the son of immigrant parents. Keep your eyes peeled for these two packages that will be online sometime on Wednesday. National Marquette Day brings Marquette University students, alumni and fans together to celebrate the university annually. The main event of National Marquette day was Saturday’s matchup between the struggling Golden Eagles and the #6 Villanova Wildcats. Marquette stuck around but Villanova had an answer for every Marquette surge. In the end the Wildcats spoiled Marquette’s big day and they took the victory 87-76.
This matchup saw the second largest crowd the Bradley Center has hosted this year. Only the rivalry game against the #2 (at the time) Wisconsin Badgers drew a larger crowd. National Marquette Day was the biggest news around campus during the last #loweclass news cycle for me so it was an easy choice for my story. I made sure to get down to the arena two hours before tip-off in order to get shots of the fans lining up. The night before filming I ran through the story in my head and had shots in mind. The shot of seats filling up in fast motion is always intriguing, but it is not an easy shot to get. The “who did what” focus of this story is Golden Eagle Fans Celebrate National Marquette Day. Originally the title was Golden Eagles rather than Golden Eagle fans, but after scrolling through the #loweclass facebook page it came to my attention that my classmate Hannah Kirby had already claimed that title for her story. Going in it was made clear that we needed more footage than we would use. I was proud to have nearly 40 video clips to choose from when the cutting process began, but to be completely honest, I could have had more. 40 clips was more than enough for this short story but the more footage you have, the easier it is to create a story. In the end this was my favorite project of the semester (so far). The video quality of the iPhone 6 impressed me in the end. The only thing the iPhone really lacks is high quality audio. Check back for more mobile video packages soon! The newest tool added to my journalism arsenal is Videolicious. My experience with creating video until this point has been using professional equipment and expensive software. My stand ups are done with a microphone and somebody else behind the camera. Editing this type of package requires hours of tedious work and great attention to small details.
Videolicious is a free application available on the App Store. It takes just a few minutes to trim shots and clip them together with this app. The app is simple and allows you to upload video to Youtube as quickly as possible. It took no time at all to upload my first video. Even though it was just my first time using the app it took somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes for me to create the package (including filming). As convenient as this tool is there were still struggles. Videolicious does not allow the user to create a voiceover and use natural sound. In order to do a stand up and use natural sound you have to create your stand up in the camera rather than on the app, as Videolicious suggests. Trimming can be a challenge because it is nearly impossible to be precise with your fingers on such a small screen. There is no way to cut a clip frame by frame or to play with the audio. Because of these restraints my suggestion for using Videolicious would be to use it to upload raw footage of live events such as the Ferguson protests. This is not the kind of tool journalists would want to use for long form pieces. Videolicious is not a tool I would use unless my deadline was measured in minutes rather than hours. Obviously as we learn more about this new tool my opinions will change or we will learn new ways to use this tool. For now it remains a tool for instantaneous journalism. This week’s exploration in journalism took me to the New York Times’ package 1 in 8 Million. The series was created in 2009 but the elegant, simple style of storytelling is still engaging. In a city of 8 million people there is an endless mess of stories to be told. Natural sound stories tell the story without the use of a narrator. It takes plenty of work for journalists to take themselves completely out of the story and allow it to be told exclusively by the subject. Herbert Lowe told me that one of these stories reminded him of me, which of course had me worried. After digging through some of the stories there was a concern that he was referring to the story of the struggling stand-up. Maybe Professor Lowe sees me as someone who thinks themselves funnier than they are. This story gave enough detail in just a few sentences so that the listener knows the subject is a comedian. To start out an interview that produces the audio we hear the opening question probably read something like this: What is it like being a comedian and how does that change your interactions with people? It took some time to realize that this was not the story that reminded Professor Lowe of me. My next guess was based on the fact that Lynn True and I have quite a bit in common. True expressed that watching sports is her escape from reality. This story made me particularly curious because the author clearly did not start the interview with a question about sports. In searching for the nut graf the question asked was likely along these lines: What do you do for a living and do you enjoy it? This story in particular displayed the importance of the second part of the double-barreled question. If the journalist fails to ask whether or not she likes her job, she may never explain that even the biggest of projects cannot stop her from watching the New York Giants game. This opens up a whole new story that may never have been told. After scrolling through a few more stories it once again occurred to me that my guess was wrong. But now I surely had the right story. Professor Lowe will never get this out of his head: The story that Professor Lowe was talking about is John Keegan: The Ladies’ Man. “They call people pick up artists and I think that’s a derogatory term,” said Keegan. It turns out that Keegan happens to be a professional ladies' man. Well color me flattered.
Keegan's response to the first question was to question it, he really is a true conversationalist. To get this audio, the question undoubtedly began by asking: What do you do? The second part could have been anything from asking how he does it to asking if how he got into it. Luckily for the journalist working on this piece there was no problem making Keegan comfortable enough to talk. Natural sound stories are unique and interesting. Creating a good one is quite a task. It seems to me that will be a project of ours sooner rather than later. Check back for that soon. In the coming months #loweclass will be working hard to complete a final project similar to last semester’s EOP project. This semester our class will be covering the Trinity Fellows Program. My specific project will be to explore the life of Urban Ecology Center’s Marketing Communications Manager Jeff McAvoy.
McAvoy has been in his current position at the Urban Ecology Center for nearly four years now. He manages a marketing team and their communication channels through different mediums. He formalized the position he is currently in, making him the first ever person to hold this job. McAvoy was responsible for the development of the website for the Urban Ecology Center. He plans strategic marketing schemes and manages publication for his organization. The 2011 graduate of the Trinity Fellows Program was placed with the Urban Ecology Center when he began his time with Trinity and is one of many who have stayed with the original company they were placed with. McAvoy is interested in emerging media, graphic design, digital storytelling and nonprofits according to his website. Many of the topics he mentioned are also interesting to me. As a communications student McAvoy covered many of the same subjects in school that we are covering currently. Stayed tuned as the project moves forward into the interview process and we begin to create video and print profiles of our fellows. An interesting, relatively new, way of telling stories is by using Storify. Creating a story on Storify allows you to curate an event by using multiple platforms. Storify creates a webpage that resembles the popular new method of storytelling covered earlier, What They're Saying pages.
In my page about the State of the Union Address there were far fewer tweets and rather than telling one story the goal was to provide many different angles about the same event. The curation page about the SOTU was not as much about what happened as it was how people reacted to it. The goals of the stories were quite different but the way the aggregation of the media looked in the end was quite similar. Using Storify was a bit difficult at first but after getting familiar with the interface it became quite simple. My recommendation for anyone creating a story on Storify would be to lay things out on paper first. Creating a layout of the story you want to tell is key. Have all the tweets you want to use picked out (and favorited) ahead of time. This way when you begin working in Storify the hard work has already been done. Storify is a neat aggregating program that has loads of potential. For #loweclass we used Storify to tell the story of Mission Week at Marquette University but it could be used to tell all kinds of stories. An interesting thought was that you could start building a Storify during a game, update the page throughout the game with good tweets, comments from live threads and vines of the game. Then it would be rather simple to wrap up the story with a few postgame summary tweets, the final score and a link to comprehensive recap. Watch out for plenty more Storify stories and some experimentation with a great program. Free T-shirt anybody?
Dennis Aloia was a popular man after Dr. Carolyn Woo finished her speech and patrons filed out of Weasler Auditorium Monday afternoon. Few things fire up students like the opportunity to snag a tee that they may never even wear. Aloia is working as a student ambassador for Catholic Relief Services during Marquette’s 2015 Mission Week. His job at this week’s events? Managing the free T-shirt table. Aloia worked in concessions for Marquette but the job was not fulfilling. “I just wanted a more meaningful job. Something to do with service and helping other people.” A job that may seem inconsequential on the surface has a larger purpose for CRS. Getting the bright blue shirt with the word “relief” emblazoned across the chest in orange serves a much larger purpose than adding to students’ wardrobes. The T-shirt aims to draw awareness and support for CRS on campus. Dr. Woo is the president and CEO of CRS. Her speech informed people of the substantial work CRS is doing around the globe. As big and powerful as the organization is, their pull on Marquette’s campus is not as strong. Aloia says that although he was required to interview for the position, the CRS began the process by approaching him first. Even as a student who was seeking out a service position, CRS did not come to Aloia’s mind as a place on campus to get involved. Unfortunately his job meant not being able to see Woo deliver her address. But with the goal of increasing awareness for CRS in mind, Aloia is happy to be busy with T-shirt distribution. Aloia explained that it’s not all work though when he mentioned one exciting perk of his new job, “I have a dinner with President Lovell on Thursday with other Catholic Relief Service ambassadors.” Aloia and his fellow ambassadors have a busy week ahead, but dinner with the president will be a highlight. If you happen to be seeking out a free T-shirt keep your eyes peeled for this young man and his team. Vignettes grab your attention with sharp imagery but keep you around with short, compelling stories. Read through CNN’s ATL24 vignette about the Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta. This is a great example of what we will be making for Marquette University’s mission week. There may not be a better place to find more diverse stories than an international airport. CNN found an incredible variety in the world’s busiest airport.
The story that gripped me in a more powerful way than any other was the tale of a bartender who has witnessed more interesting stories than any good journalist could ever dream of. She watched a man trade $5,000 worth of jewelry for a hug, but the hugger had no idea what kind of present she would receive. This moment stood out to me, but Saundra Cage has witnessed countless moments with this kind of power. The second story that stood out to me was a video titled “Open Mic” because it told many stories. With just a sentence people were able to give a wide array of input. The neatest part of this video was that it seemed as if these people were just offering up information to a random microphone rather than being prompted to answer a question. The last story that really caught my attention was about a soon-to-be soldier. The author painted a picture of a man on a mission who was scared. A raw human moment captured with Twix bars a manila envelope. This was my first experience reading through a vignette. This is a bold, sharp, concise method of storytelling. It is easy to imagine how this method could be used to tell all kinds of stories. Look out for some vignettes coming your way. |
AboutOn this page you can find blog posts about my adventures in journalism, ponderings about projects, experiences with storytelling tools and updates on what I'm working on. Archives
February 2017
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